Motown Encyclopedia

INTRODUCTION

Motown means different things to different people. The mere mention of perhaps the most iconic record label in history is often enough to invoke memories and mental images of Marvin Gaye, Diana Ross, Stevie Wonder, The Temptations, The Jackson 5, The Supremes and numerous others. With each group recalled, there is an accompanying piece of music of the mind, from Baby Love, My Girl, Signed Sealed Delivered, I Heard It Through The Grapevine, ABC and Tears Of A Clown and countless more. Quite often, you can ask people what kind of music they like and they will simply answer ‘Motown’, and both they, and you, know exactly what is meant.

Or rather, what is implied. The Motown they are invariably thinking of is the label that dominated the charts in the mid 1960s with a succession of radio friendly, dance orientated hits, most of which were written and produced by the trio of Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier and Eddie Holland. This period is referred to, naturally enough, as the Golden Era, when Motown was not only the dominant force in its home city of Detroit but carried The Sound of Young America all around the world. The kind of music that had them Dancing In the Street from Los Angeles to London, Miami to Munich and San Francisco to Sydney. It was the kind of music that attracted scores of imitators; some good, some not so good. The kind of music that appealed to the public and presidents alike, and still does.

When I first thought up the idea of writing a Motown Encyclopedia, it was that Motown that I envisaged writing about. However, when you start digging deeper into the Motown story, you realise that throughout its life (which, for the purposes of this book, is its formation in 1959 through to its sale in 1988) it was constantly trying other musical genres, looking to grab hits out of jazz, country, pop, rock, middle of the road and whatever else might be happening at the time. Of course it wasn’t particularly successful at some of the other genres, although those who claim Motown never did much in the rock market conveniently overlook the healthy sales figures achieved by Rare Earth, the group, and focus instead on the total sales achieved on Rare Earth, the label.

The same is true across the whole of Motown. For every Marvin Gaye that made it, there was a Leon Ware left by the wayside (and I don’t mean to belittle Leon, an artist whose work I much admire, but who has never received the accolade his undoubted talents fully deserve). For every Little Stevie Wonder turned from a child performer into an adult star, there was a Stacie Johnson who released little. Every celebrated promotional campaign put behind The Supremes meant less in the proverbial coffers to push Celebration. A list of key Motown artists during the thirty or so years it was most active would probably run to a hundred or hundred and fifty names, yet there were nearly six hundred artists who recorded for Motown and its numerous imprints during that period. And speaking of imprints, as well as the obvious Tamla and Motown labels, there were homes for just about every conceivable musical style, including Workshop Jazz and Soul, and others intended to have an eclectic policy, such as MoWest and Miracle.

As the list of artists and labels to be featured grew, so did the realisation that you can’t write about Motown’s history and legacy without mentioning the executives, musicians, writers and producers who, in many cases, made it all possible. Without Holland-Dozier-Holland, there would have been no Supremes. Without Norman Whitfield, The Temptations story might have ended around about the mid 1960s, and without The Funk Brothers, there would have been no Motown Sound; they all played their part in ensuring that the Golden Era extended into the following decade and beyond. I will make no apologies for adopting a total inclusion policy when it comes to the artists or labels; if they had a record released or scheduled by Motown or its labels, then they are featured. That includes plenty who owe their appearance in this book to that fact that they had a single track on a soundtrack or compilation or were named performers on a cast recording. I’ve also included those labels that were distributed by Motown in America during the same period, since those records on Gull, Manticore, CTI and others would have been similarly promoted by Motown, with varying degrees of success. Also featured are several artists who had records released in Europe only, ranging from those who were signed to the British arm of MoWest and Rare Earth to those whose releases were designed to test the water, so to speak, into which category falls Lynda Carter, better known as Wonder Woman.

In addition to the who’s who of Motown, I’ve included the hits; every single or album that reached the Top Ten in America or Britain has its own entry. The reason for selecting both is so that the respective national differences can be highlighted; I’m Still Waiting (Diana Ross), It Should Have Been Me (Yvonne Fair) and The Onion Song (Tammi Terrell & Marvin Gaye) made the Top Ten in the UK but stalled some way short in the US. Why is that? I have absolutely no idea, although several of the hits you will encounter owed their revived fortunes to the British phenomenon of Northern Soul.

To the who and what I’ve added numerous other entries that I hope will be of interest, including the singles that have received the highest airplay, the stars who have their own stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, the various films Motown produced and details of the very first Motortown Revues in America and Britain. In short, I hope, just about anything and everything you would want to know about Motown.

One of the problems with writing a book such as this is verifying the information contained within. Although several of the major artists have either written their own autobiographies or collaborated with others on biographies, infinitely more have not. Even those who have written their own books sometimes contradict one other. As an example, it is well known that Berry Gordy and Smokey Robinson first met when Smokey took his group, The Matadors, to audition for Jackie Wilson’s manager Nat Tarnapol, with Berry in attendance as a regular writer for Jackie. Smokey and Berry both agree that Nat Tarnapol turned The Matadors down, but they disagree over the reason given, with Smokey claiming they were told they looked and sounded too much like The Platters and Berry claiming they were told to go and fashion themselves on The Platters! At least the mention of The Platters is consistent! And since logic would tend to dictate that The Matadors were too similar to The Platters, I have chosen to go with that version of the story. Similarly, several artist biographies, autobiographies and interviews contain the right facts but the wrong dates, or have forgotten that well known events actually happened to them. If only ‘those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it’!

So much for what is in the book; I feel I should also mention what has been left out, which for the most part is two thirds of the ‘Sex And Drugs And Rock & Roll’ cliché (or, if you are of an older generation, ‘Wine, Women & Song’). Motown was not unlike any other record company (or probably any other American workplace for that matter, if ‘Mad Men’ is to be believed), with the staff and artists engaging in all manner of relationships with each other. I have chosen to only mention these where they are key to the Motown story, so Mickey Stevenson marrying Kim Weston and Mary Wells marrying Herman Griffin are mentioned, but who slept with who for the most part is not – if you want to find out more, several artists mention them in their own books. The two main exceptions to this rule are the relationships between Berry Gordy and Diana Ross, which obviously impacted on The Supremes, and David Ruffin and Tammi Terrell, which impacted on just about everyone else. During the course of research, there were numerous rumours about the sexuality of several of the artists, but for the most part, that is all they were – rumours – and so I’ve omitted them too. It is similar with the various tales about drug taking; Rick James made a virtual career out of his affection for marijuana, whilst David Ruffin (him again!) ruined his career (and his life) with his addictions, but whatever the rest of them got up to is not really a matter of my concern. After all, ‘It’s What’s In The Grooves That Counts’.

Speaking of Berry Gordy and Diana Ross, both have suffered from adverse publicity of one sort or another over the years. In the case of Berry Gordy, he is invariably criticised personally by former artists for issues they may have had with Motown collectively. There have been numerous legal challenges over the years, many of which Berry ignored or dealt with outside the courts. That the majority of these centred on royalties should be of no surprise, for during the three decades plus I’ve been involved with the record industry, I have yet to meet an artist who didn’t believe that any of their records should have gone higher in the chart or sold more than they actually did.

Even when the legal challenges were at their greatest, Berry chose to remain silent. It was not until 1994 that Berry Gordy wrote his autobiography ‘To Be Loved’, a book that answered many of the questions that had arisen over the years but left countless more hanging in limbo. It is also far easier for sections of the media to report that Marvin Gaye criticised Berry at almost every opportunity (which they deem newsworthy), yet not print even one of Smokey Robinson or Deke Richards’ utterances in Berry’s support (which they don’t). So let me state that if there is an implied criticism of Berry Gordy anywhere in this book, it is not intentional.

In the case of Diana Ross, many of the problems that have arisen are not of her making nor, it should said, attributable to any of the other ladies who at one time or another made up The Supremes. Instead, groups of fans have divided themselves in to camps supporting one member or another and snipe at each other across the worldwide web, despite frequent requests to cease from the very ladies they purport to back.

Over the years there have been numerous attempts at analysing Motown’s success. Even during that Golden Era, other record companies would get hold of the latest Motown release and try and work out who was playing, what they were playing and then try to replicate the sound, as though it was a recipe to success. Berry Gordy merely said the Motown Sound was ‘rats, roaches, soul, guts and love.’ It was more than that, of course, a whole lot more. You had to have the right song, sung by the right artist, played by the right musicians and with the right producer calling the shots. Even having all of that was still not enough, for you needed the right salesmen to get the record into stores, pluggers to get it onto the radio and publicists to get the media writing or talking about the record or artist. Only when you had a synergy between all of these did you stand a chance of a hit. Fortunately, Motown had the right people in the right place at the right time to register more than fifty chart toppers on the Billboard pop chart and nearly three hundred Top Twenty hits.

We all know of the efforts the artists, writers, producers and musicians went through in order to turn those three minutes of magic into a major hit, and many of their stories are told in this book. One of the greatest stories, however, isn’t; how Bob Dylan came to effusively praise Smokey Robinson, which was the creation of Motown’s publicist extraordinaire Al Abrams. One morning I received a memo from Berry reminding me that Smokey Robinson is one of our nation's greatest songwriters and I should really do something in a hurry to promote him as such in the media because he wasn't getting all the recognition he really deserved. I mentioned it to Al Aronowitz, a music writer who was also Dylan's biographer and very close friend. Al said that he had heard Dylan praise some of Smokey's lyrics as being poetical. I asked Al if he would let me get a quote from Dylan about Smokey. Al asked me what I had in mind and I suggested Smokey Robinson is America's Greatest Living Poet. Al thought about it for a minute and said, 'Why bother even telling Bob? That sounds just like something he'd say anyway. Go ahead and do it. If Bob sees it in print he'll think he said it. He's certainly never going to deny it.'

The story has appeared in virtually every Smokey Robinson biography ever since and Bob Dylan has never denied it; perhaps he really did think Smokey was the greatest living poet.

If there was anyone better, then the chances are they worked at Motown; you can read all of their stories and more in the Motown Encyclopedia.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The list of people that I have to thank for helping me put together this book is almost as long as the list of entries that appear on the following pages, but simply put, this book would not have been possible without their assistance and advice along the way.

I’m especially grateful to those artists (or at least those I was able to contact) who took the time and trouble to read through their entries and suggest amendments and corrections.

There were also numerous fellow Motown writers and aficionados who read through various entries and sections and made helpful suggestions. In all, I have received an inordinate amount of assistance, all of which has made the book much better than it would have been left to my own devices! Of course, it goes without saying that any mistakes are all my own work...

Thanks therefore are due to Al Abrams, Peter Anders, Gary Anthony, Peter Benjamson, Richard Blavaard, Janie Bradford, Trevor Churchill, Stephen Cohn, LeRoy Durbin, Guy Fletcher, Billy Griffin, Jim Honeycutt, Peter Hoorelbeke, Stacie Johnson, Frank Kavelin, Mike Konopka, Chris Lussier, Sherlie Matthews, Jon Miller, Lars Nilsson, Doug Payne, Steve Reed, Deke Richards, Leon Sylvers, Ralph Terrana, Greg Walker, Leon Ware, Kent Washburn and Kim Weston.

I am also extremely grateful to Steve Devereux, Paul Nixon and Karen Spreadbury for reading through the manuscript, checking for spelling and factual errors.

In addition to the numerous books mentioned in the bibliography found towards the end of the book, I should also thank the music magazines Blues & Soul, Black Music, Black Echoes, Melody Maker, Music Week and Record Mirror, all of whom I have referred to at some time or another in creating this book.

Finally, thank you to my daughter Joanna for the cover, and my son (Stevie) and wife (Caroline) for their assistance and support throughout.

Graham Betts

June 2014

A

THE ABBEY TAVERN SINGERS

In 1962 Minnie Scott-Lennon, owner of the Abbey Tavern in Howth, near Dublin in Ireland, reasoned that a group of musicians and balladeers performing at the tavern might prove popular with the punters. And so it proved, enough for The Abbey Tavern Singers to draw capacity crowds to the tavern and eventually the attention of record companies. Their first album was The Rafters Ring At The Abbey Tavern, issued on Pye Records in 1965, but it was the following year’s We’re Off To Dublin In The Green on ARC that broke big, with the title track appearing in a television beer commercial for Carling Breweries.

The success of this prompted a North American tour, with Motown picking up the album for release on their V.I.P. subsidiary and issuing it in February 1967. The Abbey Tavern Singers at this point consisted of Michael O’Connell (vocals), Margaret Monks (vocals), Tess Nolan (vocals), Michael Brookes (guitar and vocals), Bill Powers (banjo and mandolin), Tommy Rick (uilleann pipes), Seamus Gallagher (fiddle), Joe O’Leary (fiddle) and Paddy Joseph Downes (spoons).

Whilst this is the only album issued by the group by Motown (the title track, about the I.R.A. uprising in Dublin in 1916, was scheduled as a single in the summer of 1968 but remained unissued), the Abbey Tavern Singers continued releasing material through ARC and then their own label into the 1970s. They continue to perform at the Abbey Tavern, which is still owned by the Scott-Lennon’s.

ALBUM: WE’RE OFF TO DUBLIN IN THE GREEN (1967)

ABC – THE JACKSON 5 [SINGLE]

After I Want You Back became a massive international hit, Berry Gordy was keen to maintain the momentum on his newest charges. To this end, Freddie Perren, Fonce Mizell and Deke Richards were instructed to come up with something equally as catchy as the Jackson 5’s debut hit. Whilst this might be construed as formulaic writing, it had been a policy that had served Holland-Dozier-Holland well during their time at Motown. Thus Deke Richards looked at the chorus to I Want You Back and constructed a new song around it, with simplistic lyrics that were as easy as ABC to follow. Aimed at the same market as its predecessor, ABC took just six weeks to rise to the top of the Billboard singles chart and knock none other than The Beatles’ Let It Be off the number one spot for the first of two weeks at the top of the pile.

Whilst Motown might have been targeting the youth market with The Jackson 5, the group and their hit retained enough of a soul feel to top the R&B charts for four weeks. In the UK the single made it into the Top Ten, peaking at #8 in June 1970. It became a hit all over again in 2009 following the death of Michael Jackson, hitting #50 in July.

ABC – THE JACKSON 5 [ALBUM]

Work on The Jackson 5’s second album, ABC begun immediately after the session wrap-up for their first long player Diana Ross Presents. Indeed, so keen was Berry Gordy to get enough material in the can, Motown didn’t even bother waiting to see how the singles performed, assembling material and booking recording dates confident that what they had got on tape for the first album would prove successful. This time the entire album was produced by The Corporation, the writing team of Freddie Perren, Deke Richards and Fonce Mizell with input from Hal Davis. As well as four Corporation originals (ABC, The Love You Save, One More Chance and Found That Girl), the album featured material plucked from the Jobete songbook, a favourite ploy of Motown’s to ensure even more revenue flowing into the company. To this end, there were versions of 2-4-6-8, (Come ‘Round Here) I’m The One You Need, Don’t Know Why I Love You, Never Had A Dream Come True, True Love Can Be Beautiful and The Young Folks.

To these were added cover versions of The Delfonics’ hit La-La (Means I Love You) and Funkadelic’s I’ll Bet You. Whilst it would obviously be the potential success of any singles lifted (which, in the event proved to be The Love You Save and ABC) that would drive sales of the album, by the time ABC appeared on the market America had been hit with Jackson 5-mania, indicating that Motown’s timing had been spot on. An R&B chart topper upon its release on 8 May 1970 (it would spend twelve weeks at the summit), the album would also crossover to the pop charts and hit #4, bettering the performance of the debut album by one place. It was also an international success, even if its final chart place of #22 in the UK was rather more modest. All told the album would go on to sell five and a half million copies around the world, making it one of the most popular of all Jackson 5 albums.

ABDULLAH

Joseph McLean was born in Brooklyn, New York and became a follower of Elijah Muhammad whilst in prison, converting to Islam and taking the name Abdullah. After arriving in Detroit (he supposedly walked carrying just his acoustic guitar) and becoming friendly with Frank Wilson and Hank Cosby, Abdullah got a deal with the Soul imprint, releasing the single I Comma Zimba Zio (Here I Stand The Mighty One) backed with Why Them, Why Me in October 1968.

When it didn’t sell, Abdullah blamed the white staff of Motown for frustrating the promotional effort on his single and got into a heated argument with executive Ralph Seltzer over the matter. The argument ended with Abdullah pulling a machete, knife or letter opener (depending on who’s telling the story) on Seltzer and being booted out of the building and off the label in double quick time.

EWART ABNER

A career record executive, Ewart was born Edward Gladstone Abner in Chicago, Illinois on 11 May 1923 and graduated from college as an accountant. At the time Ewart left college, Art Sheridan had launched the Chance record label in Chicago and offered him a job as accountant within the distribution and record plant, then running the pressing plant until this was closed down. Then Ewart became more involved in the record label, virtually serving as Sheridan’s right hand man for the next four years. Despite some success with the likes of The Flamingos and The Moonglows, Sheridan shut down the company in December 1954 and invested money into Vee-Jay Records, with Ewart joining that company as General Manager in early 1955 and becoming President in 1961.

Whilst Ewart had grand plans to make Vee-Jay a major force in the industry, signing a number of potentially lucrative deals, the owners Vivian and Jimmy Bracken preferred a slow growth policy. There were also rumours that Ewart had siphoned off company funds in order to cover personal gambling debts (Ewart not only denied this but claimed that he had become a one-third owner of the company and thus money he gambled was his own), but irrespective of whether he had or not, the fact was that despite selling 2.6 million Beatles records in a single month in early 1964 as the British Invasion hit full swing, Vee-Jay was strapped for cash. By then Ewart had been forced out of the company and, with financial assistance from Art Sheridan, launched the Constellation Records label in 1963 (he had previously created the Falcon label in 1957 whilst at Vee-Jay, which changed its name to Abner upon the discovery of another label with the same name).

The new label had some success, especially with former Vee-Jay artists Dee Clark and Gene Chandler, but three years later, the Bracken’s were staring bankruptcy in the face and asked Ewart to return to Vee-Jay. Despite his best efforts, Vee-Jay was effectively dissolved in 1967.

Ewart’s abilities at running a company had brought admiring glances from many in the industry, not least Berry Gordy, who upon learning Abner had just re-entered the job market, hired him to head up ITM International, the company’s talent management division. He proved a success in this role, so much so that when Berry Gordy decided to relinquish control of the record side in 1973 in order to concentrate on films, he promoted Ewart to the position of President. Whilst the company enjoyed some success, including five #1 hits that year, it did not last and Berry fired Ewart in 1975. To soften the blow he agreed a three year consultancy contract. This was eventually coupled with helping set up the Black Music Foundation, ten years as personal and business manager for Stevie Wonder (1975 to 1985) and executive assistant for Berry Gordy’s Gordy Company from 1986 until his death from pneumonia on 27 December 1997.

ABRAHAM MARTIN AND JOHN – MARVIN GAYE [SINGLE]

Singer, songwriter and pianist Dick Holler wrote Abraham, Martin & John as a tribute following the assassinations of Martin Luther King (April 1968) and Bobby Kennedy (June 1968), working with Dion on the first version to feature on the charts. Dion’s folk-rock version hit #4 towards the end of 1968, with the success of the song being noted by Smokey Robinson in particular. He and The Miracles recorded a cover version that was a Top 40 success the following year (it peaked at #33), whilst Marvin Gaye also recorded a version with producer Norman Whitfield in August 1969 that would appear on his That’s The Way Love Is album.

By the time the album surfaced, Marvin had retreated from the music business, devastated by the death of his one-time singing partner Tammi Terrell. To all intents and purposes, Marvin had all but retired, refusing to tour or record as he came to terms with the loss of such a talented singer. Whilst there was to be no new material for the foreseeable future, Tamla Motown in the UK felt Abraham Martin & John would keep the hits coming, following closely on the Top Ten success of Too Busy Thinking About My Baby and The Onion Song. Released in April 1970 Abraham Martin & John would make #9 in June of that year and herald something of a switch to more politically aware material over the next few years. Despite the UK success of the single it was not released stateside.

AL ABRAMS

Eighteen year old Al Abrams (born in Detroit, Michigan on 19 February 1941) accompanied a friend on a job interview in May 1959 at 1719 Gladstone in Detroit, the then home address of Berry Gordy and Raynoma Liles (later to become Berry’s second wife). The friend, Sanford Freed, was being interviewed for the job of driver for Berry, but didn’t really want the job. Al, however, had been impressed with the music Berry and Raynoma played the pair during the course of the interview, much of which were tracks that others had paid $100 to have the Rayber Music Writing Company record, and pushed Berry into giving him a job as a promoter. Berry pulled one of the records from the pile, a track called Teenage Sweetheart on the Zelman label by a Yugoslavian singer who had changed his name to Mike Powers; if Al could get a play on that, he could have a job as a plugger. The next day Al took the record to WCHB Radio in Detroit, badgered the DJ Larry Dixon for three hours and got him to play the record on air, which Berry happened to be listening to at the time! Al therefore become not only the National Promotion Director for Tamla Records and Jobete Music Company, he became the first white employee on a salary of $15 a week.

Al was not afraid to use his colour to his advantage in order to get publicity for Motown artists. Later, by which time he was Director of Public Relations and confronted with one particular newspaper group that would not put any of Motown’s (black) artists on the cover of its publications, Al discussed the matter with the features editor.

Well, let me tell you the truth. You know how these black people like to play dice? Well, I really started Motown Records, and one night I got into a craps game with Berry Gordy, and I lost the whole thing, but they let me stay on and do the publicity anyway.

After exclaiming the story to be one of the saddest he’d ever heard, the features editor instructed the newspaper group to do all they could to help the poor, unfortunate Al; The Supremes appeared on the cover of the next edition of the TV magazine.

Al remained in Motown’s employ through to December 1966 when he left, subsequently to form his own publicity company, Al Abrams Associates. Al has maintained his connection to Motown, co-writing the musical ‘Memories Of Motown’ with Mickey Stevenson in 2009 that was performed as a tribute to Motown’s fiftieth anniversary celebrations and writing an autobiography that provided an insight into the early Motown days from the perspective of someone who was there.

FURTHER READING: HYPE & SOUL: BEHIND THE SCENES AT MOTOWN (2011)

JOHNNY ACE

Born John Marshall Alexander in Memphis, Tennessee on 9 June 1929, Johnny Ace was one of R&B biggest stars at the start of the 1950s, racking up a string of hits. He achieved greater notoriety, however, for shooting himself in the head backstage at the City Auditorium in Houston on Christmas Day 1954. Popularly reported that he shot himself whilst playing Russian roulette, it is more likely the result of attempting to prove the gun was not loaded. His biggest hit, Pledging My Love, was a posthumous R&B chart topper for ten weeks commencing February 1955. The track was featured on the soundtrack to ‘Christine’, released by Motown in November 1983.

ARTHUR ADAMS

Born Arthur Lee Reeves in Mecon, Tennessee on Christmas Day 1940, Arthur was already a seasoned professional by the time he joined Motown, via the Chisa label, in 1969. Inspired by the likes of B.B. King and Elmore James, guitarist Arthur toured with Gene Allison before getting stranded in Dallas in 1959. He remained in Dallas for the next five years, becoming a key musician in the area before a Vee-Jay contract prompted a move to Los Angeles in 1964, but lack of promotion on the single (I Feel Alright) saw him turn to session work, most notably for former Motown stalwart Mickey Stevenson’s Venture label, and record under his own name for Modern.

In 1969 he got a contract with Chisa Records, recording three singles for the label, It’s Private Tonight, My Baby’s Love and Can’t Wait To See You, with a fourth single Uncle Tom unreleased.

Arthur then returned to session work, including the soundtrack to ‘Bonnie And Clyde’, which saw him working with Wayne Henderson of The Crusaders (The Crusaders having also been signed to Chisa). Arthur got a contract with Fantasy thanks to Wayne, with the former Crusader producing his debut album in 1975. Arthur also fleetingly hit the UK chart, scoring a #38 pop placing with the club hit You Got The Floor on RCA in 1981.

PEPPER ADAMS

Born in Highland Park, Michigan on 8 October 1930, Park Frederick ‘Pepper’ Adams III was still a child when he learned to play the tenor saxophone and clarinet after his family moved to New York. Pepper then moved to Detroit when he was 16 and switched to baritone saxophone, getting a permanent gig with Lucky Thompson’s band the following year. He later returned to New York, where he would play with the likes of Benny Goodman, John Coltrane, Donald Byrd and, from 1958 onwards, Charlie Mingus.

His only Motown album came with Pepper Adams Plays The Compositions Of Charlie Mingus, released on the Workshop Jazz label in August 1964, with Pepper leading a band that included Bob Cranshaw and Paul Chambers (bass), Danny Richman (drums), Hank Jones (piano), Zoot Sims (tenor saxophone), Bennie Powell (trombone) and Thad Jones (trumpet). Pepper, who would go on to garner three Grammy award nominations, died from lung cancer on 10 September 1986.

ALBUM: COMPOSITIONS OF CHARLIE MINGUS (1964)

CANNONBALL ADDERLEY

Julian Edwin Adderley was born in Tampa, Florida on 15 September 1928 and acquired the nickname Cannonball as a derivative of ‘cannibal’, a name bestowed upon him at high school in deference to his habit of fast eating. It is as a saxophonist, however, that he achieved lasting notoriety, both fronting his own combos and performing with Miles Davis. His only Motown involvement came on the soundtrack to ‘Save The Children’ released in 1974, with Canonnball performing Country Preacher during the live show. He died from a stroke on 8 August 1975.

WENDEL ADKINS

A protégé of Willie Nelson, country singer and guitarist Wendel Adkins (born in Louisville, Kentucky on 20 September 1946) was originally signed by the Hitsville label and released his debut album The Sundowners in January 1977. Although Wendel would score two minor country hit singles in I Will (#80) and Laid Back Country Picker (#91), the album failed to sell in sufficient quantities (although it did register on the country album chart at #46) so was re-released on the MC imprint in October the same year.

Two months later the album was repackaged and reissued again, this time as Wendel Adkins on MC, with a non-album single Julieanne (Where Are You Tonight) scraping into the very lower reaches of the country chart at #98. In between the first two releases, the UK branch of Hitsville issued Texas Moon as a single, the failure of which resulted in the album never making the release schedule. Adkins would later play at Willie Nelson’s Whiskey River club in Dallas and tour with the likes of David Allan Coe and George Jones.

ALBUMS: SUNDOWNERS (1977), WENDEL ADKINS (1977)

THE AGENTS

According to some sources, The Agents was a Philadelphia vocal quintet formed by Nat Williams, Kenneth Davis, Warren Lundy, Jimmy Downs and Norman Bowen. Other sources, however, claim The Agents were effectively Junior Walker’s All Stars recording without their erstwhile leader. There is a case for plumping for the second option, since the only Agents track that has surfaced, Hey Girl, Come On Do The Pearl, which was finally released in 2010 on the fourth volume of A Cellarful Of Motown was originally recorded in 1967 on sessions produced by Harvey Fuqua and Johnny Bristol (Junior Walker’s regular producers at the time) and was co-written by Harvey, Johnny and All Stars members Vic Thomas and James Graves with Willie Brown and Raymond Freeman.

AIN'T NO MOUNTAIN HIGH ENOUGH – DIANA ROSS [SINGLE]

One of the first songs Ashford & Simpson wrote after being signed as songwriters by Motown and Jobete (although it may well have been written earlier, since it was later revealed that Dusty Springfield heard the song and wanted to record it, only to be turned down by Ashford & Simpson as they wanted to use the song as an entry into Motown), Ain’t No Mountain High Enough was inspired by the Ike & Tina Turner hit River Deep Mountain High. At the time producers Johnny Bristol and Harvey Fuqua were working on material with Tammi Terrell and thought the song might be ideal for her. Tammi duly recorded a version, even though she had not completely learned the lyrics and sang from a lyric sheet partway through the session. Upon hearing a playback, it was suggested that the song might make a good duet for Tammi and Marvin Gaye, whose career was in need of a boost. With some of Tammi’s vocals wiped off the master tape, Marvin added his vocals to make a seamless version of the song.

It was released as a single in April 1967 and made #19 pop and #3 R&B (as well as picking up a Grammy nomination for Best R&B Performance by a Duo), although it failed to register in the UK. The following year Diana Ross, The Supremes and The Temptations recorded a version for their album Diana Ross & The Supremes Join The Temptations. In 1970 Ashford & Simpson were working with Diana on her debut solo album and suggested doing an update on the song. Although Diana was reluctant, reasoning it was renowned as a Tammi & Marvin song, the producers convinced her that they could come up with an arrangement that would make the song hers, utilising the backing vocal abilities of Billie Rae Calvin and Brenda Joyce Evans of The Delicates (the pair would later be pinched by Norman Whitfield and placed in The Undisputed Truth) as well as Ashford and Simpson themselves.

The Diana Ross version was not universally popular within Motown, with even Berry Gordy reluctant to release it as anything other than an album track, but it was soon noticed that radio stations were doing their own edits (the album version runs to 6 minutes 18 seconds) in order to add the song to their playlists, and so an official edit was hastily called for. The final version, at 3 minutes 32 seconds, kept the key elements from the original recording and proved irresistible, helping the single power up the charts at a rapid rate. It would eventually top the Billboard pop charts for three weeks, the R&B chart for one week and hit #6 in the UK. It was also good enough to earn Diana a Grammy nomination for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, although she lost out to Dionne Warwick’s I’ll Never Fall In Love Again. The song, however, has retained its popularity, becoming a Top 40 hit in the UK for Jocelyn Brown in 1998 (it peaked at #35), a #60 hit for Whitehouse the same year and was one half of a hi-nrg medley with Remember Me by Boystown Gang that hit #46 in 1981.

AIN'T NO SUNSHINE – MICHAEL JACKSON [SINGLE]

Written by Bill Withers and inspired by the film ‘Days Of Wine And Roses’, Ain’t No Sunshine was originally released as the B-side to Bill’s single Harlem, but after many DJ’s began flipping the single, Sussex Records took to promoting Ain’t No Sunshine as the lead side and were rewarded with a Top Ten hit on both the pop and R&B charts in 1971. At about the time Bill Withers was rising up the chart, work had started on Michael Jackson’s debut solo album Got To Be There. A wide variety of material was chosen for the album, ranging from the ballad title track through to the more uplifting revival of Rockin’ Robin, with both singles making the UK Top Ten.

As Bill Withers’ original version of Ain’t No Sunshine had missed out altogether on UK chart honours, Tamla Motown decided to go with a third single from the debut album and released Michael’s version in July 1972. An instant success at both radio and retail, Ain’t No Sunshine would make it three top ten hits in a row as it powered its way to #8 on the singles chart. Bill Withers received more than adequate compensation when the song won the 1971 Grammy Award for Best Rhythm & Blues Song.

AIN’T NOTHING LIKE THE REAL THING – MARVIN GAYE & TAMMI TERRELL [SINGLE]

Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell’s album United, largely produced by Harvey Fuqua and Johnny Bristol, yielded three major R&B hits in Ain’t No Mountain High Enough, Your Precious Love and If I Could Build My Whole World Around You. Two of these had been written by Nickolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson, who would write material at their New York home and then journey to Detroit for a week to ten days in order to have their material reviewed. At one such meeting, to which they presented the song Ain’t Nothing Like The Real Thing, they expressed an interest in producing the song themselves. Berry Gordy gave them the go ahead, but for security instructed Harvey Fuqua and Johnny Bristol to produce a version too, opting to let Quality Control decide the fate of the respective tracks.

Ashford and Simpson took their place at Hitsville in October 1967 for their first Marvin and Tammi session, and couldn’t help but let their nerves show.

Norman Whitfield and Smokey were watching us, said Nick Ashford. The studio was so small, and you could just see their faces while we were trying to deal with the musicians and arrangers. They were standing up there like it was a party and didn’t realise how nervous we were.

They managed to get through the session without too much trouble, but then came the Quality Control meeting, with Nick attending on his own.

I’d never been to a Quality Control meeting before. Berry was right there at the middle of the table. Beads of sweat must have been popping out of my head! So there was a silence after our record was played, and then Berry said, ‘I don’t think we need to vote on this one. Let’s just send it out right away.’

In actual fact the single wasn’t released until March 1968, but as soon as it hit the airwaves and shops, it was obvious it was a hit, going on to top the R&B chart and make #8 on the pop chart, although it made a rather modest #34 in the UK. In 1994 Marcella Detroit and Elton John took an update to #24 on the UK chart.

AIN’T THAT PECULIAR – MARVIN GAYE [SINGLE]

The Miracles’ guitarist Marv Tarplin came up with the initial melody for Ain’t That Peculiar whilst the group was touring Europe as part of the 1965 Motown Revue, with the rest of the group quickly catching on to the riff and fleshing it out in to a full-blown song. At the time The Miracles were one of the top writing teams at Motown, penning hits for themselves and The Temptations and decided that this song would be ideal for Marvin Gaye, who had recently recorded I’ll Be Doggone by the same writing team of Smokey Robinson and assorted Miracles’ members, and by giving it a new slant had taken it into the pop and R&B Top Ten.

That’s what was so great about working with Marvin. I’d show him a song one time and I knew he would sing it even better than the way I envisaged it. He’d always do something unexpected and wonderful. He sounded like he knew it before I even showed it to him.

Indeed, Marvin’s ability to make a song his own showed itself to perfection on Ain’t That Peculiar, resulting in an R&B chart topper and pop #8 following release in September 1965.

AIRPLAY

Berry Gordy placed such importance on radio airplay he had two mini speakers, equivalent to the sound that would be heard on a car radio, installed in the studio at Hitsville, reasoning that if a record sounded good on them it would sound good on any radio and could therefore be released. And Berry was careful to ensure Motown did not get involved in payola.

"I did not believe in payola for Motown when people were fighting for my records. Once a disc jockey played Shop Around, the phones lit up; that’s how potent it was."

Indeed, Motown wouldn’t have had to pay a single dollar in order to ensure plays on Marvin Gaye’s I Heard It Through The Grapevine, which has received more than ten million plays on radio since its release!

The top Motown songs according to the BMI (Broadcast Music Inc, the collecting agency) are as follows:

The Four Tops – Baby I Need Your Lovin’ (10.9 million)

Marvin Gaye – I Heard It Through The Grapevine (10 million)

The Supremes – You Can’t Hurry Love (9.5 million)

The Four Tops – I Can’t Help Myself (6.8 million)

Martha Reeves – Dancing In The Street (6.6 million)

Stevie Wonder – My Cherie Amour (6.5 million)

The Isley Brothers – This Old Heart Of Mine (6.4 million)

The Four Tops – Reach Out, I’ll Be There (6.4 million)

The Supremes – You Keep Me Hangin’ On (6.2 million)

Stevie Wonder – For Once In My Life (6.1 million)

The Supremes – Where Did Our Love Go? (6.1 million)

AIRTO

Brazilian percussionist Airto Moreira was born in Itaiopolis on 5 August 1941 and first studied guitar and piano before switching to percussion. After playing locally throughout Brazil, during which time he was said to have collected some 120 different percussion instruments he moved to New York in 1968 with his wife, singer Flora Purim. His reputation alone ensured regular work, commencing with a spell with Miles Davis and Lee Morgan before becoming a member of Weather Report and later Chick Corea’s Return To Forever.

By 1972 his standing was such that he was signed by CTI as a soloist, although it was Billy Cobham that produced his Virgin Land album, issued on the subsidiary Salvation label, as well as becoming the main label’s in-house percussionist. Airto would continue to record both solo and with his wife over the decades, most notably in the group Fourth World and on Life After That from 2003 which also featured their daughter Diana.

ALBUM: VIRGIN LAND (1974)

LEE ALAN

Lee Alan Reicheld was born in Clinton, Iowa on 5 November 1934 and worked as a disc jockey at Detroit station WXYZ with his own show ‘Lee Alan On The Horn’ and a trademark klaxon horn he would blast between records. He was also a former school friend of Barney Ales and asked a favour of putting together a record in aid of the YMCA Camp Fund. The song was written by Lee, produced by Clarence Paul and recorded at Hitsville in 1964 with assistance from Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, Smokey Robinson and The Vandellas (albeit misspelt on the label as The Vendellas). The single, Set Me Free, was only available to callers to the radio station, with WXYZ later claiming that over 50,000 copies had been sold in aid of the charity. After leaving the radio industry in 1972, Lee set up the Reicheld Corporation, a full service advertising agency and in house creative production source.

FURTHER READING: TURN YOUR RADIO ON – LIVE FROM MOTOWN (2004)

BARNEY ALES

A former stockman and promotion manager for Capitol and branch manager for Warner Brothers, Baldassare ‘Barney’ Ales (born on 13 May 1934) was lured to Motown from Aurora Distributors to head up the sales department. The appointment was seen as controversial by many, for whilst Motown was predominantly a black organisation, Barney Ales and the staff he brought in were white. However, it was observed by Gordy that it would be easier for a white head of sales to get payment from the predominantly white retailers and wholesalers, thus ensuring a steady cash flow for the burgeoning company. Barney was to remain with the company until 1972, subsequently going on to form Prodigal Records but eventually returned to Motown, along with his label, before replacing Ewart Abner as President in 1975. He remained as head of the company until 1979. He is also credited as a songwriter on several Motown cuts, including Buttered Popcorn by The Supremes.

DAVID ALEXANDER

Born in Blackwood, Monmouthshire in 1939, David Alexander Ebdon left Bedwelty Grammar School in Gwent at the age of sixteen and followed his father and eldest brother down the mines at Oakdale Colliery. After a few years of back breaking work, he left the mines and studied as a machine engineer before becoming foreman at a brake company. There he also joined singing company the Trenewdd Singers that appeared on ‘Opportunity Knocks’, with his performance being singled out as worthy of pursuing a singing career.

Acting on that advice and adopting the name Ricky Mason, he went out on the road performing across the country. It was, however, under the name David Alexander that he got his first recording contract with Columbia, releasing If I Could See The Rhondda One More Time. Several singles and years later, he was one of the artists briefly signed to Rare Earth in the UK, with Phil Cordell writing and producing Love Love Love that was released in February 1974. It was not released in the US and David went back to the Columbia label thereafter. He died from a heart attack on 4 February 1995.

ALL DIRECTIONS – THE TEMPTATIONS [ALBUM]

By the time The Temptations came to record All Directions, their relationship with producer and song-writer Norman Whitfield was fraught, to say the least. The group had embraced Norman’s switch to psychedelic soul back in 1969, but three years later it seemed as though that was all Norman wanted them to record, with wistful ballads like Just My Imagination a rarity. Their other problem with the material was that much of it was not fresh, with Norman trying out his songs on a variety of artists, trying to coax something different out of each one.

This had already proven to be a problem for Gladys Knight & The Pips, who saw their showcase song I Heard It Through The Grapevine become Marvin Gaye’s signature song barely a year later. Indeed, of the songs presented to The Temptations that would go on to form All Directions, Funky Music Sho’ Nuff Turns Me On had been a hit for Edwin Starr in April 1971 and Papa Was A Rollin’ Stone recorded and due for release by The Undisputed Truth. Since the lyricist on both these songs, Barrett Strong, had already parted company with the producer (on amicable terms since he wished to revive his own recording career), Norman had no new songs.

Instead, alongside the two revivals of his earlier work he offered covers of The First Time Ever (I Saw Your Face) made famous by Roberta Flack, Do Your Thing (Isaac Hayes) and Love Woke Me Up This Morning (Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell), with the album rounded out with Mother Nature, I Ain’t Got Nothin’ and another controversial track in Run Charlie Run. Norman had recorded all of the music whilst The Temptations were out on the road, utilising The Funk Brothers and the likes of Melvin ‘Wah Wah’ Ragin, with much of it sounding as though it would not be out of place on a film soundtrack. Despite their hesitancy (and Otis Williams would later state he was sure the album and singles were going to flop), The Temptations excelled on the album, especially the full length near on twelve minute Papa Was A Rollin’ Stone. And therein lay the other problem between Norman Whitfield and The Temptations; it seemed to the group that these extra long cuts had the effect of making them little more than backing singers on their own albums, a problem that would reach its peak with the next album Masterpiece.

In the meantime, All Directions was released in July 1972 and became one of their biggest sellers and most popular albums, shifting more than half a million copies and reached #1 R&B, #2 pop and #19 in the UK. Of course, much of this success was down to Papa Was A Rollin’ Stone, which would go on to claim three Grammy Awards in 1973.

ALL I NEED – THE TEMPTATIONS [SINGLE]

Although Smokey Robinson and Norman Whitfield were still engaged in an almost head-to-head battle to try and get an exclusive on producing The Temptations, there were still occasions when other’s within Motown got a chance to show their abilities. Frank Wilson, who had been one of the company’s earliest employees in Los Angeles had proved his worth to The Temptations with his production on In A Mellow Mood, an album of standards, and came up with the basic idea for All I Need. He took the idea to Eddie Holland and R. Dean Taylor and between the three of them completed the song ready for recording in February 1967. Rather than come up with exactly the same kind of arrangement and feel that Norman was producing, Frank sought a different interpretation to the song, utilising The Andantes on backing vocals (something Holland-Dozier-Holland were doing extensively on their recordings with The Four Tops), which served to perfectly compliment David Ruffin’s lead vocals. Released in the US in April 1967 it represented something of a musical departure for The Temptations but still found its mark, hitting #2 R&B and #8 pop before the month was out.

ALL NIGHT LONG (ALL NIGHT) – LIONEL RICHIE [SINGLE]

Lionel Richie’s reputation during his latter days as a member of The Commodores had highlighted his abilities as a ballad writer. It was a reputation that was enforced by his debut solo album, giving rise to two massive hits in You Are and Truly at much the same time Endless Love, a Richie composition recorded as a duet with Diana Ross was also tearing up the charts. There would have been those expecting more of the same for the follow-up album Can’t Slow Down, but when the first single appeared in September 1983, a couple of weeks ahead of the album, it was to be the Caribbean influenced All Night Long (All Night). Indeed, the final version features a mix of Jamaican, African and Swahili phrasing, with Lionel having asked a knowledgeable friend how Bob Marley might have worded the song!

Aided by a promotional video directed by former Monkees member Michael Nesmith, something of a pioneer in the then relatively new promotional medium, All Night Long became an international hit, topping the US pop charts for four weeks, the R&B charts for seven and hit #2 in the UK, only held off the top spot by Culture Club’s Karma Chameleon and then Billy Joel’s Uptown Girl during its three week residency at number two. And it wasn’t only the public who took to the song, as Lionel would recall.

"Stevie Wonder was performing in Radio City and in the middle of his show, he stopped everything. He told the audience that he wanted to play his current favourite song – and he played All Night Long on tape! Right in the middle of his show! That is the greatest honour anyone can give me. It’s the ultimate compliment. It was the compliment of my life!"

All Night Long would garner two Grammy nominations, for Record of the Year and Song of the Year, although failed to win in either category.

ALL OF MY LIFE – DIANA ROSS [SINGLE]

Touch Me In The Morning had been a big hit for Diana Ross from the album of the same name but Motown in the US had decided there was little else on the album likely to generate interest or sales to the same extent. Besides, the priority in America had already switched to the forthcoming album of duets with Marvin Gaye, with You’re A Special Part Of Me being selected for single release in September 1973. In the UK that single was delayed until November, but there were already concerns the track was not particularly strong enough for the UK market. This would have been embarrassing for Tamla Motown, even more so as Diana Ross was touring the country at the time.

Thus a decision was made to return to the Touch Me In The Morning album and release All Of My Life, a ballad in a similar vein to the title track. Written and produced by in-house writer Michael Randall, All Of My Life was something of a slow burner, being released on 30 November 1973 and finally hitting the UK chart on 5 January 1974. It would take another month to finally reach the Top Ten, peaking at #9, by which time Diana’s UK tour was over.

SUSIE ALLANSON

A country music singer and later actress, Susie was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota on 17 March 1952 and began her singing career in 1970 as part of the touring company for ‘Hair’ and later ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’, also appearing the film version of the latter. After her 1976 debut album for ABC Susie was signed by Mike Curb for MC Records the following year and recorded one album, A Little Love, produced by Ray Huff but seemingly unissued apart from promotional copies.

Susie followed Mike Curb out of the company the same year, subsequently signing with his new imprint at Warner Brothers (where a reissue of her 1977 MC single Without You made #79 on the country charts in 1979) and later Elektra before finishing her country career with United Artists and Liberty/Curb.

ALBUM: A LITTLE LOVE (1977)

RICHARD ‘PISTOL’ ALLEN

Born Howard Richard Allen in Memphis, Tennessee on 12 August 1932 he moved to Michigan to work at AC Delco in the mid 1950s but found greater satisfaction playing drums in the jazz nightclubs around Detroit. Spotted by fellow drummer and future mentor Benny Benjamin, Richard was hired by Berry Gordy to become a member of the Funk Brothers, the legendary musical backing group for just about every Motown hit recorded between 1963 and 1972. Whilst this meant having to adapt his jazz style ‘Pistol’ Allen became a mainstay at Motown, appearing on such hits as Heat Wave, How Sweet It Is and Baby Love, among countless others. He died after a long battle with cancer on 30 June 2002, some six months before the release of the documentary film ‘Standing In The Shadows Of Motown’.

THE ALLENS

Family group The Allens consisted of five of the eleven Allen siblings in Mitzi (born on 20 June 1959, vocals), Larry (born on 2 November 1957, keyboards), Gary (born on 23 November 1953, bass), Ronny (born on 10 November 1955, drums) and Tony Allen (born on 7 December 1952, guitar), with Motown insisting that the group had the ability to become the next generation of The Osmonds. That they had one of that number, Alan Osmond, as their writer and producer as well as a production and management deal with Mike Curb Productions accounted for Motown’s confidence, but despite this High Tide (written and produced by Alan as Allen Osmond), scheduled for September 1974 was pulled from release. The following February, A Bird In The Hand (Is Worth Two In The Bush) did make the streets, prompting High Tide with Ronny on lead vocal to be rescheduled and released in May 1975. Thanks to Motown’s initial promotional push, High Tide began to make some headway, both on radio and television, with the group appearing on ‘American Bandstand’ promoting the release.

The song was playing on AM and FM stations and Billboard had it as pick of the week and it started to take off, remembered Gary. However, we were told by our management company that there were problems with many record companies that were being investigated by the government cracking down on the practice of payola. This meant our record had to be introduced to new programme directors every week which in essence caused the freeze of monies to promote the record, resulting in it falling off playlists.

In the UK High Tide was issued in July 1975 on the MoWest label, but despite the company’s best efforts failed to make any headway. The Allens would release one further single on Mercury in 1977 but never quite managed to attain the same level of success as The Osmonds. The group eventually disintegrated, with Gary settling in Las Vegas where he regularly performs under the name Gary Anthony in Frank Sinatra and The Rat Pack tribute shows.

MICHELLE ALLER

Michelle Aller was born in Los Angeles, California on 26 October 1949 and recorded one single for MoWest, The Morning After, backed with Spend Some Time Together, both of which were written and produced by Michael Randall and scheduled for release in August 1972. Shortly before release, the A-side got pulled and replaced with another Randall song, Just Not Gonna Make It, with the title proving prophetic. Michelle also appeared on the soundtrack to ‘Lady Sings The Blues’, performing Had You Been Around.

She next appeared as a songwriter, linking with producer Bob Esty and co-writing four of the tracks from Cher’s Casablanca album Take Me Home, including the Top Ten hit single title track. The same pair then co-wrote four tracks on her follow-up album Prisoner, with Hell On Wheels another hit single and also turning up in the film ‘Roller Boogie.’

Michelle later sang with Cerrone, appearing on the album Angelina and also acted and sang under the name Mavis Vegas Davis, her monicker for her role as stage manager on ‘American Idol’.

GENE ALLISON

Versie Eugene Allison